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We’ve discovered six tiny symbols stamped into the original 17th-century cupboard bolts in our house - each one a Butterfly Cross, a form of apotropaic (protective) symbol. These marks were believed to ward off evil or misfortune and are more commonly referred to as witches’ marks. Apotropaic symbols are usually carved into wood or stone near thresholds like doors, windows, or fireplaces - places where harmful forces were thought to enter. But surviving examples on ironmongery seems to be less c

Possibly over 4,000 years old, this apotropaic wand is attributed to the 12th–13th Dynasties of the Middle Kingdom of Ancient Egypt. Carved from hippopotamus ivory in the shape of a tusk-like canine, it is decorated on one side with protective deities bearing knives and shows signs of wear from use before burial. It measures 33.1 × 5.3 × 12.4 × 1 cm (13 1/16 × 2 1/16 × 4 7/8 × 3/8 in). This artifact is now housed at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, New York, United States. It was

We recently discovered Apotropaic ‘Witches’ marks’ forged onto the old cupboard bolts here at The Great House, dating to around 1690. Despite their name, Witch marks actually have very little to do with witches or witchcraft! The word ‘Apotropaic’ comes from the Greek for “to turn away,” and these marks were thought to repel evil influences - witches, demons, or the dreaded “evil eye.” Most common from the 16th to the early 19th century, people often carved such symbols near doorways, on furnitu